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_ "DELUSION" OF SPIRITUALISM 
COMPARED WITH A BELIEF IN THE BIBLE. 



History of The Creation and Fall of Man 

IS NOT TKUE, 

THERE IS NO NEED OF A JESUS 

TO SAVE FROM THE FALL, WHI<5h IS 

O^PROYEN UNTRUE BY THE BIBLE ITSELF.^ 

" So plain that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein." 

How to Obtain the Best Spiritual Phenomena. 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR BECOMING A MEDIUM 

FOR ALL KIND OF MANIFESTATIONS, 

INCLUDING FULL FORM MATERIALIZATION. 



A SHARP REPLY TO THE UNGENTLEMANLY AND 

VIOLENT TIRADE OF TALMAGE. 



A VALUABLE BOOK FOR ALL SPIRITUALISTS TO 

READ, OR LOAN THEIR SKEPTICAL 

NEIGHBORS OR FRIENDS. 



-BY- 



PROFESSOR J. W. CADWELL, 

IMIES^EiRJCST, 

401 Center Street, Meriden, Conn. 

1884. 

[Copyrighted.] 



^ 



&* 



£■ 



-V 



,T 



THE "DELUSION" OF SPIRITUALISM 

VS. 

A BELIEF IN THE BIBLE. 



I have read carefully "The Bottom Facts Concerning 
Spiritualism" and kindred works intended to disprove 
the truth of spiritual manifestations, attended many public 
exposes of the same, and seances where I have detected 
bare-faced imposition on the part of the pretended me- 
diums times unnumbered, heard many a sermon from the 
"sacred desk" denunciatory of a belief in spirit return, 
been manager for genuine mediums for public and pri- 
vate seances for months in succession, mesmerized scores 
of men and women who were entire strangers to all 
phases of spiritual phenomena, and in their own homes 
developed them into mediums under conditions preclud- 
ing the possibility of deception. 

Few, if any, have had better opportunities for a 
thorough and practical investigation of all phases of spir- 
itual phenomena than myself, or tried harder to improve 
them. I have practised as a professional mesmerist in 
twenty-five states of the Union, for over thirty-seven 
years, and in public halls and opera houses mesmerized 
many thousands of ladies and gentlemen, and with them 
given exhibitions of the power of one mind over the 
physical organisms that properly belonged to real spirits 
yet in the body. And while doing so. an invisible intelli- 



gence has often taken posssesion of my mesmeric subject, 
that claimed to be a disembodied human spirit. This 
has been done scores of times, and when least expected. 
Many of those invisible controls have given positive 
proofs of their individuality and personal identity by 
stating facts concerning past events, unknown at the time 
by either the mesmeric subject or myself. 

It is a mistaken idea that the mesmerist usually con- 
trols other minds, or weaker minds. The basis of mes- 
merism rests on the great fact that every man, woman 
and child is a spirit now, clothed upon with ever chang- 
ing material that we call a human body. Many are 
from birth gifted with a fine nervous organism, that is 
susceptible to the influence of minds or spirits, either in 
mortal bodies or those who have gone out of their own 
in most respects unchanged by death. 

The mesmerizing of an individual is simply forming 
an electrical or magnetic connection between the mesmer- 
izer and his subject, or by transmitting a greater or less 
quantity of magnetic-aura from the system of the mag- 
netizer to the one who can be mesmerized or entranced, 
either of which processes enables the operator to control 
the other organism, to an extent depending entirely upon 
the condition of both. 

The spiritual operator, sometimes called "the familiar 
spirit," is able to control a medium while the mind or 
spirit of that medium is in a passive or negative condi- 
tion, and one who is more susceptible than is generally 
necessary for becoming a good mesmeric subject. 

Those who cannot be mesmerized or entranced have 
nothing to boast of while saying so loudly, as many do, 
that "nobody can mesmerize me." My book, "How to 
Mesmerize," will enable any who have the magnetic 
ability, to mesmerize proper subjects, and also to de- 



velope many into good mediums for all the various 
phases of mediumship, and without any other instruc- 
tions ; although, like learning to play on a piano, it is 
better to have the services of a teacher, even though you 
have the best printed instructions on that subject. 

Many can become mediums by being mesmerized who 
probably never could otherwise, as the visible operator 
has the advantage over the invisible by sight and voice, 
besides being able to instruct as to proper times, condi- 
tions, surroundings, etc. Many of my mesmeric or psy- 
chological subjects have become as good mediums for all 
and every kind of spiritual manifestations as any in this 
country, not excepting full form materialization. The 
more a person is mesmerized the easier spirits can con- 
trol him. Several who were first mesmerized by me 
are now well known as successful mediums, while many 
are afraid to have the fact known outside of their own 
family or intimate friends, mostly from the bitter denun- 
ciations of the church people, who call believers ' 'de- 
luded spiritualists," and mediums "frauds." 

I know full well that it is a great and solemn question 
with thousands of people as to whether Spiritualism or 
the Bible is true. Generally, the more one investigates 
the more convinced he becomes that Spiritualism is not 
only true, but the grandest truth known to man. On the 
other hand, the more one examines the Bible unpreju- 
diced the less he believes it. At least, this has been the 
statement of nearly all with whom I have been permitted 
to converse on the subject. 

The most bitter opposition to Spiritualism comes from 
those who will not investigate, but instead — like Tal- 
mage — declare that God in His "holy word" has de- 
nounced all who hold intercourse with spirits, as witches 
and wizards, and forbidden mortals having anything to 



do with them, and that a belief in Jesus is our only 
hope of immortality. When such people commence 
talking to me, I do not make an effort to convince them 
that spirits can. or do, commune with men. as it would 
be like casting pearls before swine. The best thing to do 
is to first show them the inconsistency of their own belief. 

If the first three chapters of the Bible are not true in 
every particular the balance is alike untrue, or untrust- 
worthy. If Adam did not fall there can be no need of a 
Jesus to save from the fall. If the story of the creation is 
not true, the forbidding of mortals to hold converse with 
spirits is of human origin and unworthy of attention. 

When I was a boy I was taught by my orthodox father 
* and mother and the Sabbath school teachers and minis- 
ters for the first twenty years of my life to ""Remember the 
Sabbath day and keep it holy : for in six days the Lord 
made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is." 
And I was taught that those days were like our days — of 
twenty -four hours' duration. 

About the close of that time the students of the 
science of geology, who had been frowned down by the 
church for years, came more boldly to the front with 
proofs too plain to be longer ignored that six days were 
too short for the creation of either earth, sun. moon or 
stars by many thousands, or even millions, of years ; and 
the learned theologians (?), to save themselves from de- 
served ridicule, began to teach that those days were in- 
definite periods, instead of twenty-four hours each, and 
that there was u no conflict between science and revela- 
tion ; that nature must, and did, agree with the Bible." 

We read in the first chapter of Genesis: kk ln the be- 
ginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the 
earth was without form, and void : and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters." 



The earth not being in existence then, was void ; and 
darkness filled the universe. No light of any kind had 
ever existed, or there had been a previous creation of 
light that had become extinct. If there had been any 
this could not have been the "beginning." Therefore, 
during all the beginningless past, God had dwelt in dark- 
ness. Indeed, there could not have been a beginningless 
past if this was the beginning. Neither could there have 
been previously a God or angels in heaven ; or a heaven 
for God and the angels ; for in the beginning he created 
heaven and earth and all that in them is. No heaven 
or God ; no earth or man until the beginninsr. 

After the Bible tells us that "In the beginning, God 
created the heaven and earth," it then informs us that it 
took six days to do it, and attempts to give a very concise 
account of each day's creation. On the first day God 
made light ; nothing more, nothing less. When he had 
made it he divided the light from the darkness, and called 
the darkness night. 

Light is invisible ; between you and some visible, 
though distant mountain, a stream of light from the sun is 
flowing down at noon day into the intervening valley, but 
no human eye can see it. The mountain itself, if it is 
visible with its rocks and trees, gulches and projections, 
is so only because portions of it absorb or reflect greater 
or less quantities of light, the mountain, but not the light, 
being visible to the eye. The light of that first day could 
not have been visible, or it was not like the light of 
modern times. There was no material substance then to 
either absorb or reflect it, and it might as well not have 
been created. There was no eye but the eye of God to take 
it in, for if God made heaven and all that therein is in 
those six days, the angels of heaven had not yet been 
created. He could not divide the lisdit from the darkness 



previous to the existence of light ; and when the darkness 
of the first night came on, the light necessarily went out, 
leaving the universe precisely as it was before — in utter 
darkness, heaven yet uncreated and the earth yet a void ; 
with only five of the six days remaining in which to 
create heaven and earth and all that therein is. 

Was God as powerful then as God, or nature, is to- 
day? If so, how long would it have taken to create 
light ? . Not so long as it would take to clap your hands 
or speak your Maker's name. " God said : Let there be 
light, and there was light." Theologians, when I was a 
boy, taught that it took God twenty-four hours to do it. 
Now they claim that each day was a long period of a 
thousand years or more. 

I can only judge of the duration of the time needed to 
create light then, by some great power or force superior 
to man that exists at present, as on some dark, cloudy 
night a flash of lightning lights up the broad expanse for 
a second of time. If God was a longer time than that 
in creating light he was no match for nature as it is to-day. 

I care not how long the creative time or duration of 
the first day, or period. If it had been repeated a mil- 
lion times, how much would that first day's work have 
added to the constituent parts of heaven or earth? And 
what amount of that first day's work is there in existence 
now? Nothing. It should read: For in five days God 
made heaven and earth and all that in them is. 

There is in the second verse mention made of "water," 
but not a word indicating that God made it ; and as each 
creative period begins with "And God said : Let." etc, 
commencing after water is mentioned, we are left free to 
believe it was uncreated, or the whole story a fabrication. 

On the second day "God said : Let there be a firma- 
ment in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the 



waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, 
and divided the waters which were under the firmament 
from the waters which were above the firmament. And 
God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and 
the morning were the second day." 

On the fourth day God made the sun, moon and 
" stars also." iw And God set them in the firmament," 
which he had created on the second day. 

The firmament, your Bible says, was to divide the 
waters that were under it from the waters which were 
above it ; and in this firmament God set the sun, moon 
and stars. 

I have heard more than one minister of the gospel who 
claimed that the Bible is so plain that a wayfaring man, 
though a fool, need not err therein, say that because it 
reads "He made the stars also," that therefore the stars 
may have been created millions of years previous to the 
"beginning." If so, he would have no occasion to set 
them in a firmament that was made on the second day to 
divide the waters on this side from waters beyond. 

In all human probability there is not a minister of the 
gospel to-day who does not know that that firmament 
does not exist and never did. And every minister or 
church member, the Rev. Talmage included, who en- 
deavors to palm off such a delusion upon his fellow men, 
is either an ignoramus or a knave. 

Before the days of Gallileo the blue expanse overhead 
was supposed to be an ocean of water, held in its place 
by a something called a firmament. And the entire uni- 
verse was supposed to be no larger than the orbit of die 
moon and the unknown depth of the water beyond. 

When Gallileo discovered the moons of Jupiter revolv- 
ing around that distant planet he gave the death blow to 
that firmament, and called down upon his own head the 



8 

wrath of the believers in the Bible. He taught that not 
only did Jupiter revolve upon its own axis, and around 
the sun, but the earth as well. To save his life, he was 
compelled to deny the truth he had discovered, and by 
those who claimed to be the priests of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The sun was believed to be only a very small 
affair, and with moon and stars set in the firmament 
about as far off as the moon. 

Now, we know that if the earth could be placed in the 
centre of the sun, that orb would fill all space as far out 
as the moon and 200,000 miles beyond in all directions, 
being many times larger than the entire universe was sup- 
posed to be bv the ancients. The science of astronomy 
teaches that there are other suns many times as large as 
ours, and stars so far away that their light is thousands 
ofvears in crossing the depth of space between them and 
our solar system. Therefore, that second day's work 
could never have been done, for no such thing as a firma- 
ment exists. 

If it does, will the ministers please tell us what part of 
heaven or what part of earth it occupies. Therefore, the 
record, as viewed from our present standpoint, should be 
changed to read : For in four days God made heaven 
and earth, and all that in them is. But as that firma- 
ment does not exist, God could not have set the sun, 
moon and stars therein, on the fourth day. and as only 
two of the six days remain, Remember the Sabbath day, 
for in two days God made heaven and earth and all that 
in them is. 

In the first chapter of Genesis we read that God made 
the first man and woman, and commanded them to eat of 
every tree that bore fruit. In the second chapter we read 
that the Lord God made a man. and commanded him to 
eat of every tree but one. that bore fruit. After that the 



Lord God made a woman ; and he never said a word to 
her about that tree. All she knew about it was what 
little information she got out of Adam and the Devil, 
both of whom were almost entire strangers to her, and 
Adam, so low in the scale of intelligence as not to know 
that he was in the presence of a lady, naked. Adam may 
have told her what u God" said to him in the first chap- 
ter ; and what the w4 Lord God" said in contradiction to 
that in the second chapter. That which the devil said to 
her was so convincing that the Bible says she " saw that 
it was a tree to be desired to make one wise," and she 
did that which any woman since would have done under 
like circumstances ; she innocently partook of it. 

Yes, it says she tc saw it was a tree to be desired to 
make one wise " ; and because she desired to be w ise we 
are solemnly assured that God damned her for taking it ; 
and not only her, but all her posterity. 

God blessed Solomon for desiring to be wise. Was 
it because he was a man? And w^ould God, the great 
loving father, have damned the race forever because a 
woman sought for the same thine? Though roughly 
stated, I ask if it is not true to the very letter? 

The ^ deluded" theologian deludes humanity by teach- 
ing that to save you and I from this great imaginary 
curse that Eve brought into being, God gave his only be- 
gotten son to come into this world to be born of a woman ! 
and die ! ! that thereby we may escape the wrath of a 
God offended simply because a young and pretty woman 
desired to be wise. Theologians say because she dis- 
obeyed God, whereas God had never even so much as 
spoken to her. 

Who did God give ? His only begotten son, begotten 
of the Virgin Mary — hold on ; too fast. Who did God 
give? His only begotten son. Ah. indeed? Begotten 



IO 

of whom? Mary. Had Mary lived previous to this 
time to be the mother of God's only begotten son ? He 
was God's only begotten son before being given, and 
given by God before he was begotten of the Virgin Mary, 
was he not? If Mary was not the only mother of Jesus, 
who was his first mother? Was he always God's son? 
Did he exist co-equal with his Father " before the world 
was " ? If so, he could not be His son. If he became 
God's son by being born of Mary he could not have been 
a begotten son previously. If not a begotten son before 
he was begotten, how could God give His only begotten 
son? u Great is the mystery of Godliness." To say 
that God gave his only begotten son to save sinners is 
sheer nonsense. John iii : 16. 

If it is forbidden of God to hold converse with spirits, 
why did an angel of God, who certainly was a spirit and 
invisible to all save Zacharias, come to him and foretell 
the birth of John? Or the angel of God appear in a 
dream to Joseph repeatedly? 

The whole foundation of the Christian religion rests on 
three or four dreams of Joseph that an angel came to him 
to tell him what to do concerning an unborn child, and 
its flight into and return from Egypt. Is nor a belief *in 
such dreams as liable to be only a "delusion" as a belief 
in spirit communion? Did Paul utter an untruth when 
he said, in i Cor. xii., u Some have the gift of discerning 
spirits ?" And can it be wrong, even from a Bible stand- 
point, to investigate spiritualism, since Paul, who wrote 
more than half the books of the New Testament, advised 
the earl\- Christians to "try the spirits," that by so doing 
they might ascertain whether those who came to them 
were good or evil ? 

The Bible is evidently a very imperfect history of the 
jews, interspersed with many seemingly supernatural 



II 

events, most of which, in the light of modern Spiritual- 
ism, are very easily explained, all the so-called Lords, 
Gods, angels, devils, etc., being probably only human 
spirits who carried with them into spirit life their own 
individuality. I, for one, believe that the true God of the 
universe is infinitely superior to the so-called God of the 
Jews. 

I have attended many a spiritual seance where manifes- 
tations of a seemingly supernatural character took place, 
that could not be accounted for by any known law, with- 
out admitting that spirits or some invisible intelligent 
force was present. And I have heard many apparently 
intellectual people at once, and before investigating, pos- 
itively assert that they ■ knew that it was all the work of 
the devil. Had they lived in the days of the prophets, 
they would have attributed it as quickly to a Lord or God 
as to a devil. 

Who is the devil ? Why, a fallen angel, says the 
Church. How came he to fall? Did he have a tempter, 
as they say Mother Eve had ; or did he fall from some 
other cause ? We are piously informed that God created 
all the angels perfectly innocent and holy, and that one 
of the most favored took a notion into his head that he 
could run the vast machinery of the universe as well or 
better than his maker. And thousands of the other angels 
thought that he could, and they too rebelled against God, 
kicked up a row in heaven, and after a long struggle got 
thrust out of that place into one "prepared for the devil 
and his angels." And to spite God the chief actor took 
the form of a serpent, expressly to thwart God in this his 
first effort to start a new colony outside of the celestial 
city, and made such a grand success of his undertaking 
that he is sure of about ninety and nine of all who are 
born on earth ; leaving God, who made the earth "for 



12 

His own good pleasure," about one in every hundred of 
those He calls His children. Smart devil, isn't he? Did 
God intend the devil should do all this, when He created 
him ? 

If he did, God has deliberately created millions of 
sensitive creatures expressly to be damned. If God did 
not so intend, then there is a power in existence that is 
superior to God himself. 

If you say that God has prepared a way for all to es- 
cape the clutches of the devil and get into heaven, I 
make bold to say that such a statement is false ; and if 
the devil is the father of liars, as the Bible asserts, then 
ail who say so are in danger of hell fire, if there is any. 
Millions have never heard of Jesus. Millions who have, 
are so organized as to possess reasoning faculties ; and 
though as desirous of getting to heaven as others are so 
constituted by their creator that they cannot believe the 
story of the creation ; of the fall ; of the miraculous con- 
ception ; of the atonement ; of the death of a part of an 
Immortal God ; of the resurrection of the old body ; of a 
general judgment when all nations, tribes and tongues are 
to stand naked before God and be separately judged out 
of a book ; of a heaven with streets of gold ; of a personal 
God sitting on a great white throne ; of a Jesus with 
mutilated material hands and feet, forever standing be- 
side that throne to receive the adulations of those who 
were redeemed by his blood, wholly unconcerned about 
their own less favored brothers, sisters, children and all 
they held dearer than life itself on earth who are wailing 
eternally with the damned in hell. Is a man to blame 
for believing, or for not believing? 

I believe there is a woman known as Queen Victoria. 
Why? Because there is something reasonable on which 
to predicate such a belief. If I was assured that she was 



!3 

a good woman, and yet to punish one of her children for 
disobeying one of her commands, she held that child,, 
while less than a year old. on a red hot stove for a month, 
I should be justified, would I not. for saying I do not be- 
lieve it? Why? Because my conceptions of goodness 
are above such deeds of cruelty. An inhuman monster 
might do deeds like that ; but not a loving mother ; no 
loving father would do, as we read in the Old Testament, 
what God did* My conceptions of God are infinitely 
above those of any Christian I have ever met in all my 
travels. 

AVe read that Jesus said, ' 'Forgive, not seven times 
only, but seventy times seven." Can the one who said 
that, be in any sense, a part of that so-called God that 
failed to practice forgiveness in the Garden of Eden? 
Had God forgiven Eve for trying to be wise, and, in a 
fatherly manner admonished her not to' do so again, who 
knows but that it would have required less than seventv 
times seven to have saved every man. woman and child 
on earth. s » Practice what you preach" is as good a 
maxim, is it not, for the father as for the children? 

It does seem to me that a man who believes the stories 
of the Bible is far more ^deluded" than one who believes 
in Spiritualism. That book was written so long ago that 
no one is able to tell whether any of its reputed authors 
ever lived or not. And if possible every separate state- 
ment should be carefully compared with similar well au- 
thenticated facts of to-day. Because the Bible claims to 
be the word of God is no evidence that it is. 

Did God give us our reasoning faculties? If so, it is 
our duty to reason and examine all things of importance 
for ourselves, and then accept or reject them. If the 
Bible seems untruthful and inconsistent to me, I should 
be a hypocrite and a sinner to say otherwise. 



To maintain that Moses wrote the first five books of 
•the Bible, as many if not all Bible believers do, is one of 
the "delusions" that Christians have accepted. In the 
last chapter of those Mosaic books we read that Moses, 
died and that the Lord buried him. "But no man know- 
eth of his sepulchre unto this day." If no man knew of 
his sepulchre, who could have known who buried him? 
When the story of the Lord digging* a grave and burying 
a man was written, it was so very long after the event 
that the writer thinks it very remarkable that during all 
the intervening time no one has learned of the location 
of the grave "unto this day." To convey a yet more dis- 
tinct idea of the antiquity of that event the writer says : 
"And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto 
Moses." After his death and before this story was writ- 
ten there must have been many prophets in Israel. 

Probably not any of the previous events mentioned 
were written before the last one. Moses must have been 
dead nearly a hundred years or more, and the story of 
the creation and the fall, written nearly three thousand 
years after those events are represented as having taken 
place. Are those stories true or false? On these alone 
depend the need of a Jesus to save from the effects of 
the fall. 

In the first chapter of Genesis "God" made the first 
man and woman. "Male and female created he them," 
and on the sixth day. If those days were long periods 
they must have been very aged people before the close of 
the seventh, and the statements of the years they lived 
before and after begetting their children is a meaningless 
jumble. 

The sixth day must have been of more than twenty- 
four hours' duration, as on that day God created the first 
man and woman, and all cattle, beasts and creeping 



J 5 

things : And in the second chapter we read that He 
'" Brought them " with " every fowl of the air" that in 
the first chapter he made on the fifth day, "unto Adam to 
see what he would call them." " And Adam gave names- 
to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast 
of the field." "And whatsoever Adam called every liv- 
ing: creature, that was the name thereof." i; But for 
Adam there was not found an helpmeet for him." 

As the naming of "every living creature" took place 
before Eve had been made out of Adam's rib, if she was 
the first woman, he must have been endowed with more 
than human powers. He did not have to learn how to* 
talk ; he had a perfect knowledge of language ; a very re- 
tentive memory, a wonderfully imaginative brain, a long 
enduring patience, and the intellect of a giant. Look at 
the new-born prodigy standing there hour after hour as- 
the cattle, beasts, birds, reptiles, "every living creature." 
pass in review, as the --Lord God brought them unto* 
Adam." I will name that an elephant, and that a condor, 
that a turkey buzzard, that a striped snake, that an orang- 
outang. Five minutes for each would take nearly a 
month ere they all received their names and started off" 
to find a suitable climate — the grizzly to the north and 
monkeys for a more southern clime — and poor Eve 
missed it all. Think of the wonderful retentive memory 
that enabled him to name every "living creature." and 
no two the same. After the long task was over Adam 
went to sleep. When he awoke he found another crea- 
tion that the Lord God had brought him, and he named 
her ^Woman." Cain kills Abel and goes off to the 
land of Xod, and marries a wife — possiblv a sister, but 
' probably not ; and in the fifth chapter is not reckoned as 
of the generations of Adam, and his posteritv, so far as 
I remember, are not mentioned again in Bible history. 



Seth is the only child of Adam to whom he would 
probably tell the story of naming the animals, to have 
their names transmitted to posterity, so that "whatsoever 
he called them that was the name thereof," and, if so. 
"every living creature" must have been "brought up by 
the Lord God" again, for Adam to tell Seth their names ; 
and if the story is true Adam must have remembered 
the names of "every living creature" or that was not the 
name thereof. Is there a sane man on earth so foolish 
as to believe that Adam "named every living creat- 
ure," and remembered distinctly enough to tell them to 
Seth, w r ho was not born till more than 130 years later : 
during which time those "living creatures" wandered off 
to other regions of the earth. If Spiritualists believed 
any thing half as ridiculous they would be worthy of the 
epithet, "deluded." I have not space or time to review 
all the inconsistences of the marvelous stories in the 
Bible, such as that God made the earth to bring forth 
grass and herb and tree, in the first chapter, and how the 
Lord God of the second, because it had not rained on the 
earth, made "every plant of the field before it was in the 
earth, and every herb of the field before it grew." 

We read that God was disappointed and dissatisfied 
with the result of his creative energy, and decided to 
drown the folks he had created, as a man would drown a 
litter of kittens. If the man had spent two thousand 
years in raising and improving cats without making 
a success of the undertaking, yo.u could console him 
with the fact that as he was not possessed of powers to 
create the feline race with all their various disposi- 
tions and peculiar propensities, he was not to be blamed 
for his failure ; but if the man had the power to create a 
cat and all its characteristics also, it was through his own 
inability if he failed, and not the fault of the cats. But 



r 7 

of all the men and women who lived then, Noah and his 
family are the most worthy of our pity. It almost makes 
me sick to spend half a day in a modern menagerie, with 
a small army of attendants to keep it clean. How un- 
bearable must have been the situation of those eight men 
and women whom God confined in a close ark for more 
than a year, without so much as one stable boy aboard ; 
one door and one window, and both closed. I pity 
Noah's wife, sons, and daughters, and the deluded people 
of the nineteenth century who believe it. Did God make 
any improvement of the human race in the operation? 
If not, the undertaking was only another failure. 

The man who wrote the story of the firmament that 
was created, to divide the waters that were above from the 
waters below, was just the man to write a story of a del- 
uge, when "the windows of heaven were opened" and 
the waters held up by that ''firmament" called "heaven" 
descended upon the earth. 

All the vapor in the air, and the atmosphere itself, bal- 
ance a column of water about thirty-three feet in height 
and weighing about fourteen pounds to the square inch. 
We have a right to believe that there has never been a 
Noah's flood, for all the vapor or water in the atmosphere 
would not be sufficient to raise the surface of the ocean 
more than a few inches. Only very ignorant or terribly 
"deluded" people believe in either a Mosaic firmament 
or flood, in this enlightened nineteenth century. The 
ignoramus who wrote the story must have lived in an 
open tent, and never known that men and animals con- 
fined in that ark would have all been dead for want 
of fresh air inside of twenty-four hours. Did you ever 
read of those horrid deaths in the Dark Hole of Calcutta ? 

We are asked to believe that God wrote the Ten Com- 
mandments with his own finger on tables of stone. One 



of those was "Thou shalt not kill." As God and Moses 
were together on the mount, they heard loud shouting by 
the Israelites. Aaron had made them a molten calf (Ex- 
odus xxxn ; 4, 10. and the Lord said to Moses, "Now, 
therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot 
against them, and that I may consume them, and I will 
make of thee a great nation." Moses was still holding in 
his hands one of this God's commandments — "Thou 
shalt not kill." And the first thing that God proposed 
to do after giving that law, was to kill every one of those 
deluded Israelites but Moses, and the only really guilty 
one was Moses' brother Aaron. The only reason God 
did not kill them was because Moses convinced him that 
if he did he would get dishonor among the Egyptians. 
"And the Lord," to save his honor, "repented of the evil 
of which he thought to do unto his people." And Moses 
threw down "Thou shalt not kill," went to the gate ot 
the camp, and said to the sons of Levi, "Thus saith the 
Lord God of Israel ; Put every man his sword by his 
side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the 
camp, and slay every man his brother and every man his 
companion, and every man his neighbor. And the chil- 
dren of Levi did according to the word of Moses ; and 
there fell of the people that day about three thousand 
men." Had Moses no respect for the " Law" of God? 
or, God none for His own ? 

In the twenty-second chapter of Ex. 1 8th verse we read, 
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." What shall 
be done with her? Why, simply break that other com- 
mand of God, and kill her. If God does not want a 
witch to live, why doesn't He kill her Himself? In the 
twenty-second to twenty-fourth verses of the same chap- 
ter we read, " Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless 
child. If thou afflict them in anywise, and they cry unto 



J 9 

me, my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the 
sword !" 

Look out, my Christian friends, do not even so much as 
to " afflict any widow" even if she be a witch ; for God 
has surely declared thatif you do, and she cry unto Him, 
he will kill you with the sword. A witch, if she be a 
" widow, or a fatherless child," is in far less danger of 
death, if you afflict her, than you. And if one of these 
people have suffered "affliction in anywise" by Talmage's 
sermon, his God should kill him at once, or his word 
amounts to nothing. We read in Exodus xxxiv ; 27-28, 
that Moses wrote the Ten Commandments on the two tables 
of stone. In Deut. x : 4, Moses says that the Lord wrote 
them himself. In that wonderful story of Saul and the 
woman of Endor, we read in I Sam. xxviii : 6, "And wdien 
Saul enquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, 
neither by dreams nor by vision, nor by prophets," 17th & 
1 8th : " For the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine 
hand and given it to thy neighbor, even to David, because 
thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst 
His fierce wrath upon Amelek." In I Chron. x : 13, 14, 
u So Saul died for his transgression w r hich he committed 
against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord 
which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one 
that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it. And enquired 
not of the Lord ; therefore He slew him, and turned the 
kingdom unto David, the son of Jesse." The last quota- 
tion was selected as the text for the most bitter tirade 
against Spiritualism I ever heard from a minister. If the 
statement in the text was true, the other in I Sam. xxviii : 
6, is an untruth ; if a truth, the text was an untruth. Did 
he or did he not enquire of the Lord ? The fact that both 
statements are in a so-called word of God, proves that it 
God is truthful, He is not the author of the Bible. All 



20 



through the sacred ( ?) pages we find plain contradictions 
by the score. And shall we risk our eternal future on so 
shaky a foundation? Of one thing we are assured — a few 
more days at most and the eyes will grow dim, the pulse 
w^ill cease its beatings, and the weary aching heart will 
beat rest. A parting u good-bye," and alone we walk 
the valley of the shadow of death. It may not be worth 
much now to know aught of that mysterious and " un- 
known " future. But when the light is fading and the 
cold sweat gathers on the forehead, and the hands refuse 
to move at our bidding, it may be worth something to 
know that we have, by continued effort, caught one 
glimpse of the life and glory beyond. Oh ! can we, by 
any means, become assured that death is not the end ; that 
another life is before us ; that the friends we loved so ten- 
derly are not dead, but arrayed in robes of light await our 
coming on immortal shores : Is it not worth a life-time 
to know this? 

I spent a pleasant week at the Lookout Mountain 
Spiritual Camp Meeting near Chattanooga, Tenn., one 
of the most beautiful locations for that purpose I have 
ever seen, and recently purchased by a company of 
Southern Spiritualists for annual camp meetings : and 
while descending the mountain July 8, 1884, in a coach 
with two gents and two ladies, who were members of an 
orthodox church, one of the ladies sneeringlv asked me 
what good Spiritualism was to the world ? My reply was 
rather sarcastic, as I informed her that my daughter, twenty- 
one years of age, died unconverted to the Christian reli- 
gion ; and Spiritualism proved .that she was neither dead 
nor damned ; which fact was worth millions to me ; but 
probably of no account to those who, like her, expected 
to go to heaven and be happy, while their friends were 
forever lost. She replied that it was. no fault of hers if 
they rejected the Bible. 



21 



Like the majority of Christians that I have conversed 
with, she seemed indifferent as to the fate of her best 
friends. That Bible, with its many marvelous stories, 
has hardened the hearts of thousands of men and women, 
instead of preparing them by sympathy and an enduring 
love which death cannot change, for a better life beyond 
the grave. As long as a man believes that he can escape 
the results of a life of sin by exercising faith in Jesus at 
the eleventh hour, there is small motive for being good, 
so long as the pleasures of the world exceed the cold 
formalities of the church. Teach a man that his future 
condition depends on the improvement he makes of his 
spiritual faculties here, and that his spirit friends do know 
of his misdeeds if he do any, and there is a motive for 
doing good continually. 

There is no question in my own mind but that spirits 
influenced people in the so-called Bible times. But in 
that age of the world how were they to tell whether an 
unseen influence that controlled a person to talk, was a 
God or a Devil? One who called himself, or is called 
the "Lord" in II Samuel, xxiv : i, got angry, and 
i4 moved David to number Israel," and then because he did 
so, sent a destroying angel who killed seventy thousand 
innocent people to punish David for what the Lord 
moved him to do. " And when the angel stretched out 
his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented 
him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the 
people, It is enough : stay now thy hand." 

I do not believe it ; and for two or three reasons. First, 
because I do not think that any intelligence, Deific, 
Satanic or human would do such a wicked deed. Sec- 
ondly, because I find the same history of the numbering 
of the children of Israel recorded by another writer in 
I Chron. xxi, who distinctly says that: 4C Satan stood up 



22 

against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." 
If one statement is true the other is not : and that fact is 
so plain that a wayfaring man, if he is not a fool, need 
not err therein. 

Paul said, " Try the spirits." Why? because they 
came back in Bible times as egotistical and deceitful as 
before they entered the other life. Men, like the prophet 
Elijah, .would order his enemies hacked to death as 
quickly if a spirit, as he did when a prophet. Death 
does not change a bad man into an angel of light now ; 
nor did it in the past. How can I try the spirits ? How 
am I to tell whether a letter that I get from California is 
truthful and honest or not? If it bears the evidence of 
coming from a land speculator, I exercise my reason- 
ing faculties and accept or reject any statement therein, 
according to the light I have. If it comes from a dearly 
beloved friend who is there, or in the spirit world, and in 
that friend's well known handwriting, and treats upon a 
subject that I know none save that one and I know any- 
thing of, I am, in duty to my own best judgment, not to 
be too hasty in rejecting it ; and I have had such messages 
between closed slates many times. If I get a communi- 
cation through the lips of an unconscious entranced 
medium, containing whole sentences that some dving 
friend spoke in my ears, as the light of that better land 
gleamed on her quickening vision ; and which I know 
none on earth ever heard but me ; and she gives me her 
name, and the assurance that she still lives, and does, con- 
trol the lips of the entranced medium, shall I say that 
there is no evidence that that dear friend still lives, and 
lives to love ? To me one such evidence of an immortal 
life is worth more than all the Bibles on earth. And I 
have had scores of just such proofs of a continued life 
beyond the grave. I have had a long and remarkable 



2 3 

experience, part of which has already been given in the 
Banner of Light, with more yet to follow. 

Having had considerable experience in developing 
many mediums for various phases of manifestations, I 
will give some instructions to the reader in this volume. 
But if you wish to know how to mesmerize for public or 
private entertainments, get my book " How to Mesmer-' 
ize. 

I have confined my criticisms on the Bible chiefly to 
the three first chapters of Genesis ; because as I before 
stated, if the story of the Creation and Fall, is not true, 
all the rest may not be ; and in no way binding on the 
human family. I ask no one to take my word for any 
statement I make, but ,to exercise his own reason. If 
it is not true, are you dealing honestly with your child, 
to teach him that it is ? tw Clara," said the mother, " I 
would not hang my stockings up again, if I were you." 
" Why, mother?" lc Because you are now in your 
teens, and old enough to know that there is no such 
thing as Santa-Claus." ^ No Santa-Claus ! ! who 
brings my presents every Christmas eve, then?" kt Your 
father and I, my child." And Clara stood by the chim- 
ney corner lost in thought. Santa-Claus, that dear old 
friend of her childhood, a myth ? and he so intimately 
connected with all she had been taught concerning: Jesus, 
who was born on Christmas. With a sad heart and a 
tear in her eyes, from out which gleamed an immortal 
Spirit, she said, k * Mother, have you been lying to me 
all these years about Jesus Christ, and the Bible?" 
• Among the most intelligent people in every city where 
I have given entertainments during the last few years, I 
find that a large proportion are spiritualists. Spiritual- 
ism is increasing far more rapidly than most people have 
any idea of. Gentlemen and ladies, who are members 



2 4 

of the church, come to me to inquire if mesmerism 
tends to prove or disprove the return of spirits. I speak 
within bounds, when I say that hundreds of church 
members have said to me, that they were spiritualists; 
many of whom were mediumistic, and holding circles in 
their own homes. They do not care to be called u de- 
luded" by their life-long friends, as many are, who hint 
that they are investigating the phenomena. Is it not 
time, for Christian parents to teach their children the 
truth concerning Genesis, as well as Santa-Claus ? 

My daughter lay on her dying bed, wasted by con- 
sumption. For months she had been slowly losing 
control of her physical system as she neared the ct shin- 
ing shore" Sitting by her bed-side, I noticed a sudden 
change in her face, as she reached her hands out for me 
to take ; and in a whisper, she asked: *" Father, am I 
dying?" " No, not dying," I said, kC for there is no 
such thing as death ; but in all human probability you 
will be sate on the other side before the sun goes down." 
I spoke my honest thought, as every father should. 
Would I deceive my own ? No, not for worlds. A 
quiet, happy smile came over her face, as she replied, 
" The first one I meet will be Frances Morse, and I 
think that we will have a good time over there " With- 
in an hour, she quietly said %i good-by" to the members 
of the family, and with a happy smile on her face, left 
the mortal form for the Spirit world, with a trusting 
faith in God's eternal love. She did not fear to ki die," 
for she had been taught that c * death" was only the 
" Gates-ajar" to an immortal life. Two months later, I 
was giving mesmeric entertainments in Martin opera 
house, in the city of Albany, N. Y. And while there, 
held a developing circle one Sunday evening, at the res- 
idence of Madam Schreiber, on Hudson Avenue, with 



2 5 

several of my mesmeric subjects whom I had mesmer- 
ized at the opera house. During the time, my daughter 
materialized, and in her well known voice, said, 
" Father I am here, and Frances Morse is with me.' 
I was two hundred miles from home, as my family res- 
idence was then near Boston, Mass. No one of the 
company knew of her, and I was not thinking of either 
spirit at the time. A reporter of the Albany Daily 
Press <& Knickobocker, was present with several other 
residents of the city, and w r rote a half column article of 
the various manifestations that occurred that night, 
which appeared in the morning paper, Dec. 25, 1878. 

A son, three years younger than my spirit daughter, was 
killed by the cars near Meriden, Conn., last fall (1883.) 
I was giving mesmeric entertainments at the time in 
Iowa. One day while in Nevada, a medium, Mrs. Ruth 
Brown, daughter of Mrs. Morse Baker, became entranced 
and evidently controlled by him. He related the inci- 
dents connected with his Ci death," and said that he went 
to sleep that night, and awoke in his sister's arms. He 
thought that he w r as dreaming at first ; but soon learned 
that it w r as a grand reality. 

My daughter has fully materialized many times* at the 
seances of Mrs. Ross, in Providence R. I., and with 
another spirit, that of a dear lady friend, came out of the 
cabinet, and after locking arm-in-arm with me, have 
walked several feet from the medium ; and taken boquets 
from vases on the table, each appearing as natural as if 
in her own body. 

L. L. Whitlock, editor of Pacts Magazine, and as 
many as three or four hundred people who attended the 
seances at various times while I w T as there, not only saw r 
those who came to me, but their own friends as well. I 
attended those seances twenty-one times, and on each 



26 

occasion not less than thirty-five to forty spirits fully 
materialized, which were recognized by relatives in the 
seance. 

Thousands of people in this country have had as good 
proofs of the materialization of their spirit friends as 
myself; many of whom have testified thereto in the 
spiritual and secular papers. These people live to-day ; 
and is not their testimony as reliable as that of unknown 
authors who wrote of events that happened, if at all, 
thousands of years previously? I will briefly refer to one 
or two morq statements in Genesis, that the reader, if not 
familiar with the Bible, may compare the contradictory 
statements therein, in the light of the nineteenth century, 
and be able to judge who are deluded : those who believe 
the Bible stories, or those whom they often sneer at, for 
believing in Spiritualism. 

u And God said, Let the waters under the whole heavens 
be gathered unto one place : And it was so." Was it so ? 
Were our northern lakes and the many inland seas, the 
Atlantic and the Pacific, in one place ? Where was that 
place ? The man who wrote the history of the creation 
and the fall of man, knew as little of geography as of 
astronomy. 

What did the Lord God say to Adam about that tree ? 
" In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
die." Did he die that day ? What did God say after 
he had eaten ? cc Because thou hast eaten of the tree, of 
which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of 
it : Cursed is the ground for thy sake : Thorns also and 
thistles shall it bring forth to thee." The penalty of 
death, was changed to a curse on the ground : Was it 
not ? And the accursed ground " shall bring forth 
thorns and thistles," shall it ? Were they not created, in 
the six days ? If they were not, God did not make " all 



2 7 

that in them is" in six days. If they were in existence 
before, they surely did not come forth " because" of any- 
thing done afterwards. 

u And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not 
surely die." As they did not die, who told the truth ? 
Oh, he died inside of one thousand years, says the mo- 
dern Christian, and one thousand years is as one day to 
God. Is not ten thousand years as one day, just as much 
as less ? But he would never have died if he had not 
sinned, says the theologian. Indeed, is that so ? Sup- 
pose a big rock had fallen on him and mashed him to a 
jelly, then what ? The Bible in another place says that 
the devil is u a liar from the beginning, and the truth is 
not in him." What else did the serpent say to the wo- 
man ? u For God doth know that in the day ye eat 
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened." In that same 
chapter the Bible says " their eyes were opened." I* 
the serpent, as Christians teach, was the devil, he told 
one truth, did he not ? What more did he say ? cc Ye 
shall be as gods." In the same chapter, God said u he 
has become as one of us." What else did the devil tell 
Eve, " knowing good and evil ;" and the Bible says that 
they did. Four seperate statements, and three proven 
true in the same chapter, by direct evidence ; and the 
fourth, meaningless by a change of the penalty ; and no 
proof that he died that day. Three established truths 
against one uncertainty, count heavy in a court of justice T 
do they not ? 

" God is Love." " His mercy endureth forever." "The 
birds of the air have nests and the foxes have holes in the 
ground," and God drove his first boy who had made only 
one unintentional mistake, with his first girl in her child- 
hood — as innocent as your prattling babe who reaches her 
hand for a peach after being told she must not have one 



28 

— out into the cold, cheerless world, among the wild 
beasts of the field, without so much as a place to lay their 
heads. Do you blame the devil for wanting to take them 
in where he has a good warm fire, and plenty of coal for 
all time to come ? If that is the way God deals with 
human beings on earth, how will he do in heaven ? 

" And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it," 
and commanded that that day should be kept holy. Is it ? 
]STot by Christians generally ; they have changed it to the 
first day of the week. Why ? They say, to commemorate 
the resurrection of Jesus on the first day. Did God com- 
mand them to do so ? No, he did not. Did Jesus rise 
on the first day ? No he did not ; he rose, if at all, be- 
fore the dawning of the first day. Mat. xxviii :i, "In the 
>end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the first 
day of the week came Mary Magdalene, and the other 
Mary to see the sepulchre." 

The body gone in the end of the Sabbath (Saturday), 
as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week 
(Sunday). And the deluded Christians of the nine- 
teenth century want to stop the cars running to the Spiri- 
tual camp meeting, at Lake Pleasant, on Sunday, for fear 
of desecrating the day on which their Jesus rose from 
the dead, although by their own Bible he was up and 
away before that day dawned. If God ever sanctified 
any day for the Sabbath, it was Saturday, not Sunday. 
And I challenge all Christians to show any authority for 
the change. It seems very strange that in this enlighten- 
ed age of the world peojDle can be so easily deluded as to 
believe in the Bible stories of the Creation and the Fall. 

How much real good are Christians doing in the 
-world ? I honestly believe more harm than good. Why ? 
Because they teach that morality counts for little or noth- 
ing in the journey of life. Faith in Testis the only door 



2Q, 

to glory : That you cannot exercise this without the aid 
of the Holy Spirit : That you must pray God to give you 
his spirit to enable you to believe. 

I have known many people who could not u believe,"" 
although they have attended church for years, and lived 
through several revival meetings, who have finally given 
up all hopes of heaven, become hardened and discourag- 
ed, and are living bad lives, without caring what becomes 
of them, either in this life or the next. If they had been 
taught that every good deed they performed would car- 
ry them one step nearer the celestial city, nearer the dear 
friends that have gone before, one step nearer an immor- 
tal heritage, they would, have been better men and better 
women. Hope is the greatest blessing that our loving 
Father the Infinite, has ever given to humanity : Without 
it the soul is in despair, and sinking lower day by day. 
Spiritualism comes with a balm for aching hearts, and to 
tell the world of a life beyond, and the best way to pre- 
pare for it. 

Conditions and surroundings that are necessary for a 
mesmerist are all the more so for a spirit ; and not one in 
a hundred can be mesmerized or put into the psycholog- 
ical state when not in a proper condition of both body 
and mind ; and, not then, only by a great effort, with im- 
proper surroundings. 

That disembodied spirits can by any means control a 
human being, or again appear in a material form, are 
among the most wonderful things known to man, and 
for which they seldom find a medium in the best possible 
conditions, and in the presence of those who do not seri- 
ously retard their efforts. 

Matter and spirit are held together by magnetic attrac- 
tion ; and a spirit requires a peculiar brain battery, and 
the proper magnetism and the same material of which 



3° 

our bodies are composed, for every case of partial or full 
form materialization ; also the proper place and time. A 
cabinet for the concentration of matter thrown off from a 
human body by insensible perspration, and the magnetic- 
„aura of the medium are generally necessary. Rays of 
light, which to exist must be in rapid motion, should be 
excluded entirely for the best manifestations. 

No intelligent man will attempt to deny that the ma- 
terials of which our bodies are composed, are at times in- 
visible and beyond the reach of all our senses. Our flesh 
changes about once every year, and our bones once in 
seven ; and when the spirit of a man loses control of its 
own physical system, the body soon passes into an invis- 
ible state to be again used w T ith that thrown off continu- 
ally by living bodies, for the building up or repairing of 
others. The material is not destroyed, but it is invisible ;• 
neither is the spirit dead, although it too, is not percept- 
ible to mortal sense. Matter of which a human body is 
made, is eternal, and possessed of indestructible proper- 
ties, among which is attraction ; and in accordance with 
an eternal law it is attracted at proper times to a grow- 
ing plant, or to a disembodied spirit. The plant is not 
visible until the germ has attracted invisible matter to it- 
self, nor is a spirit visible until it, too has done the same, 
which is in darkness first, and may be repeated under 
more favorable conditions hundreds of times afterwards, 
if that spirit does not cease its existence at the dissolution 
of the first body it gathered to itself by magnetic attrac- 
tion, called growth. The invisible spirit is possessed of 
eternal and indestructible properties, as well as the gross- 
er materials of the body; among which is the power to 
think, reason and act; all of which properties the gross 
materials of the body do not possess. 

While the spirit of a man inhabits his ever-changing 



3 1 

body he retains the same identity continuously even for a 
hundred years or more, although the material body has 
changed scores of times. These facts are almost sufficient 
of themselves to prove the continuity of that part of man 
that thinks. 

I, as a spirit, am able to control my body, which is 
made up of the food I have eaten. By a chemical pro- 
cess a part of the flesh of a lamb becomes my hand ; 
while by a mechanical process the wool of that lamb 
becomes my coat. I am able to put on or take off the 
coat by exercising the will power, which sets in motion 
currents of magnetism that act on the proper muscles to 
accomplish that which I desire. To move my hand I 
have to do the same. The hand, of itself, can no more 
move than the coat. What moves it? The spirit that 
year after year inhabits the physical body. I, as a living 
spirit, will to move my hand, and the animal magnetism 
generated and held around the brain, which is a human 
battery, obeys the mandate, acts on the muscles if there 
be no obstruction, and the inert matter of which my hand 
is composed, moves in accordance with my wishes. I, as 
a spirit, control this body which I may properly call my 
machine, bv an invisible something we call animal magnet- 
ism; and by forming a magnetic •connection with other 
brain batteries I may be able to control two or even ten 
other organisms at the same time, if their proper owners 
are willing to have me. My book, u How to Mes- 
merize," contains full instructions for doing so. Animal 
magnetism plays a very important part in controlling our 
own body, or others ; this fact is not as properly under- 
stood as it should be by mediums generally. I may not 
• be able to mesmerize a person that I could if he sat close 
to one who is more susceptible to my influence, or further 
from one that is not. Magnetisms, blend at a distance of 



3 2 

several feet ; and mediums cannot be too careful with 
whom they sit for tests, &c. Because some man cannot 
be mesmerized, he thinks no one else can, and his mag- 
netism would naturally affect those close to him, and 
decidedly so, if he was doing his best to prevent a medi- 
um or a mesmeric subject from being controlled. This 
is one reason why some can get good tests from spirit 
friends while others fail ; and also why some become 
mediums much more readily than others. Never sit for 
spirit influence if those present are opposed to it. 

There are many reasons why one cannot or does not 
become a medium. You may not have the proper mag- 
netism or organism. Your daily business may be en- 
grossing all your thoughts even while you sit for 
development. Remember, no two spirits can use the 
same faculties at the same time very well. While you 
are busy thinking that you want to be mesmerized, or be 
a medium, or thinking that you cannot be, or will not be, 
you are using your own faculties and preventing others 
from doing so. You may not have one friend in spirit 
life that wants to come back and control you ; if you have, 
that friend may not be possessed of the right qualifications, 
or know how, if he has. It takes time for- a spirit to learn 
how to do, whether in or out of a human body. 

I have known many who would have become good 
mediums, if they had not been afraid of being made to 
do something which others might think was ridiculous or 
silly. This is a greater hindrance with many, than all 
other tilings combined. 

If you are not a medium and wish to become one. your 
best and quickest way is to be mesmerized by any mes- 
merist that you have confidence in ; requesting that as 
soon as you become apparently unconscious he ask some 
spirit to come and take control ot your physical system. 



33 

One mesmerizing may be sufficient. If it is not, I 
would advise, that if no unpleasant effect is experienced, 
to try once or twice more. If a decided progress is not 
made, it would probably be useless to try that process 
again. An experienced mesmerist should be able to tell 
whether there is a probability of success within ten min- 
utes of his first effort, provided the person is quiet, and 
in a proper condition of mind, with no one present ready 
to laugh or giggle, or in any way to interfere. As much 
or more depends upon the surroundings, as upon the 
passivity of the subject to be mesmerized. 

There is hardly a family that does not contain one or 
more, who could learn how to mesmerize from the plain 
instructions in my book. ' And the price is so low that it 
is within the reach of all ; and so plain that a common 
mind can fully understand it. If you cannot have the 
benefit of a mesmerist, sit in a quiet room alone, half an 
hour once or twice a week, or every day, or evening if 
you have the time to spare ; and nearly in the same way 
you would if you designed to take an afternoon nap. 
Let your right arm rest easily on a table or stand, on 
which there is paper and pencil. These sittings should 
be at regular intervals, if possible, with an honest, but 
not too earnest a desire for spirit friends to control you 
as best they can. If you are very mediumistic vou 
may become entranced the first time you sit ; or it may 
take twenty sittings of half an hour to one hour each. I 
have known people who became entranced immediately 
by a spirit, and wrote a long communication giving in- 
structions how to sit and what to do for more complete 
development. Others are conscious continually, while 
the spirit uses only the arm to write while the brain is un- 
affected. If the arm begins to move rapidly, make an 
effort yourself that the hand be prevented from being in- 
3 



34 

jured by being struck too heavily upon the table ; but do 
not be frightened in the least, as no harm will come to 
you, otherwise. The spirit maybe getting control of the 
various muscles of the arm preparatory to writing 
a long and beautiful message. In mesmerizing, I have 
to get physical control of my mesmeric subjects, some- 
times requiring an hour's time, or more before I can affect 
them mentally ; others require only a few moments. I 
try a great many experiments with some people that I 
have partially mesmerized, before I can even make them 
stutter. I may have one so that he cannot open or close 
his hand, or throw down or pick up a broom handle, or 
stop his hands from revolving around each other, long 
before I can make him forget his name. And perhaps 
the next one I try, may not require over one or two 
experiments before he passes into the full magnetic state, 
and into the best possible condition to be entranced by a 
spirit, and give the best tests ever listened to. Spirits 
have to get control of some by a slow process also. If 
you have from two to six congenial friends with you, sit 
around a table with pencil and paper while one or more 
sings in a quiet manner some, well-known songs to har- 
monize the circle. It is better to do this than to sit alone, 
but not if there is any inharmony. If some one feels the 
influence strongly and the hands begin to move, even in 
a very unintelligent or ungraceful manner, do not laugh 
or giggle, or try to stop him, unless the force is liable to 
injure the hands by their being struck upon the table too 
hard. If one gets up and begins to walk or even dance, 
do not interfere ; but rather encourage the spirit to pro- 
ceed for a time, and then ask if the controlling power 
will write a message on the paper by using the medium's 
hand. The physical movements, whether making the 
hands or feet move slow or fast, are only so many stages 



35 

of development, and generally will not be repeated many 
times, and not longer than is actually necessary. 

Many spirits, when they try to talk, have not sufficient 
power at the time, or fail because they have a whole sen- 
tence in the mind, and make too great an effort. I have 
attended many seances where the spirits had obtained 
partial control of one or more ; and been informed that 
no perceptible progress had been made for months. In 
such cases, I find almost invariably that the spirits have 
been resisted in their efforts to get physical control, which 
they must do generally before they can of the mental 
faculties. Controlling the hands, mouth or limbs is physi- 
cal control, as the moter nerves and muscles only are 
affected. Mental control -is the obtaining full possession 
of the brain or reasoning powers. A medium may be 
controlled to talk or move while conscious, and unable to 
prevent it ; or may become entirely unconscious, and the 
spirits unable to do more at present. When one of a 
circle shows indications of being affected, one of the 
company should encourage the spirit, as it may be a new 
experience to him or her as well as to the medium. 

It may be necessary to instruct the spirit as you would 
a child. If he try to talk and does not succeed, it may 
be because of too great an effort. I have taught many 
by insisting that a single word or letter shall be repeated 
several times ; and then two or more, until able to say 
them distinctly. Spirits that desire to control, are usually 
so overcome with joy at the prospect of being able to 
talk with their friends, as to be unable to do so at first ; 
and the prospect of a failure, when apparently so near a 
success, is one of the greatest hindrances I know of. I 
have assisted mediums to become developed sufficiently 
in one evening, for a spirit to deliver a grand oration on 
some subject of which the medium knew nothing ; even 



36 

after sitting for months in a circle for development, with 
only an occasional twisting of the hands previous to that 
time. 

Remember, that without one exception, the greatest 
hindrance to mediumship, generally, with those who sit, 
is the fear of being made to say or do something they may 
be ashamed of while being controlled. If you sit for the 
spirits to control you, let them do it the best way they 
can, and do not interfere too much. If you wish to know 
whether you are a medium for partial, or full form ma- 
terialization also, the best way is to sit with a few inti- 
mate friends ; place a number of articles on the table be- 
fore sitting around it ; and make the room perfectly dark 
at first. Not a ray of light from any source should be 
allowed to enter during the first few sittings. There may 
be a guitar or violin on the table, a small tea bell, a glass 
partiaiy filled with water, and one containing a teaspoon. 
Sit with hands joined a part of the time, and engage in 
light, but not frivolous or excitable conversation, and 
in singing some well known songs, in which the 
majority or all should join. About one hour is 
long enough to sit, unless the manifestations com- 
mence. Do not expect too much at first. Let the 
same company sit and in the same room at regular inter- 
vals once or twice a week for not less than eight or ten 
weeks. Let no others join unless known to be in perfect 
sympathy and very mediumistic. The probabilities are, 
judging from my past experience, that five out of ten such 
circles will get manifestations in three to six evenings ; 
and eight of ten before the ten evenings are passed. I 
should think it very strange if the spirits did not find 
among a company of six or eight, one or two mediums 
possessed of the proper magnetism to form a brain bat- 
tery of sufficient power to enable one of their number to 



37 

materialize a finger or a hand. In doing this the spirit 
uses the magnetism of the proper medium, and the mat- 
ter, thrown off from the sitters by insensible perspiration, 
with which to reclothe the end of a finger or a hand, to 
pick the strings of a guitar, or ring the bell ; if not enough 
for that, it may touch and move the spoon so that it can 
be heard. A spirit may be able to materialize only a 
little on the end of a finger, and with that be able to 
touch the water in the tumbler, and lift a single drop and 
place it on the hand of one of the company, long before 
it can move the spoon, pick the strings of a violin or take 
up a bell and ring it. As soon as the company get even 
the slightest manifestation, they are encouraged to con- 
tinue the sittings. 

I have helped form many circles, and given them the 
above advice, and in almost every instance the spirits 
have succeeded in manifesting in a few evenings. As 
soon as the spirits will allow, the room may be partially 
light, without seriously interfering with their movements. 
If after sitting a few evenings you do not get the desired 
results, form a new circle, but on another evening of the 
week, and take in new members, and hold only the light 
circles for enhancement, or writing ; and let onlv those 
who prove to be very mediumistic join the circle for 
materialization. 

If you object to dark circles, place a small stand on 
your table and cover it with bed quilts, or with something 
to make it entirely dark, and place your things within the 
darkened space, and sit around the table as for the dark 
circle, having the room in a subdued light. Or, if you 
prefer, place all your things beneath the table, and cover 
it with blankets for the negative condition of darkness. I 
prepared a table in this way in the parlor of Dr. Loucks, 
of Moquokata, Iowa, shortly after the close of the Iowa 



3§ 

Spiritual Camp Meeting at Clinton, 1883, an d sat down 
with him, his wife and another lady, about three p. m., 
with the room light enough to read coarse print ; and in 
less than half an hour the spirits were ringing the bell 
and picking the strings of the violin. Mrs. Morse Baker, 
the well-known lecturer and her husband, with others 
came in on the following evening, and were astonished 
at the wonderful manifestations that we got at this, the 
second sitting. 

Dr. Loucks is now an advertiser in the Bannei' of 
Light, having become developed for diagnosing disease 
from a person's handwriting or a lock of hair in a very 
successful manner. If you are able to get manifestations 
in either way I have described, I would advise you to 
then sit for full form materialization. 

For this you may sit alone at one end of the parlor, 
which should be perfectly dark, and have your company 
of regular sitters at a distance not less than ten feet from 
you, most of whom Should join in singing. If a spirit 
can materialize it will make its presence known by 
touching or pulling at your dress or hair. Do not sit to 
exceed one hour each time, and continue the sittings two 
or three months or longer if you feel impressed to do 
so. If you prefer to sit in the light, you can, but are less 
liable to get satisfactory results as quickly as in the dark. 
You can have a cabinet made consisting of two curtains 
across one corner of the room, the inner edges overlap- 
ing each other. It should be about seven feet in height, 
and large enough for two to sit in comfortably ; sit alone 
most of the time with the room in a very subdued light. 
It is better to exclude all day-light, and have a small 
lamp well shaded at first, at some distance from the cab- 
inet. I would not advise any one to sit for materializa- 
tion unless known to be very mediumistic, and even 



39 

then, it may require many months, although some are 
successful in a few evenings. Sit at regular times, and 
as will be most convenient. Do not miss a night, unless 
necessary ; nor sit for a moment if for any reason you 
are needed elsewhere, or desire to be absent. If your 
mind is not in a passive state, there is nothing gained by 
sitting for development. Continue your sittings for sev- 
eral weeks, indeed for not less than three or four months, 
if you have the time to spare and know that you are 
susceptible to spirit influence. It would not be advisable 
unless you are. Two of the best materializing mediums 
I am acquainted with, sat twice a week, one over five 
months, the other nearly eight, before sufficiently devel- 
oped to sit for a public seance. 

But few realize the vast importance of proper condi- 
tions in themselves, of both mind and body ; and more 
especially of each individual in the room. I have in my 
own mind now, two good and recent illustrations of this 
fact. While at the Lookout Mountain, Spiritual Camp 
Meeting, July, 1884, ^ was my ited to the cottage occu- 
pied by Mrs. Cooper, a materializing medium from 
Louisville, Kentucky. There were present the Vice- 
President of the Association ; Mr. Albert, one of the 
trustees ; his wife and five or six other Spiritualists. Mrs. 
C, as well as all the others, had attended the service at 
the speaker's stand, and we were quietly talking of it, 
as Mrs. Albert cried out, ct Look quick, there is my 
father in-law^." Mrs. Cooper had taken a seat directly 
in front of her cabinet, consisting of two dark curtains 
across the corner of the room ; the moon was shining in 
at the window, furnishing light sufficient for me to see 
each one distinctly. At the exclamation of Mrs. Albert, 
we all looked at the cabinet as the curtains parted again, 
revealing the full materialized form of a man of decidedly 



4° 

marked features, and one that, if known, could be un- 
mistakably recognized ; and he was by Mr. Albert, who 
called him " Father," and conversed with him for several 
minutes. The spirit seemed exceedingly well pleased at 
being able to make his presence known. Mr. Albert 
assured me most positively that it was his father. 

Three other spirits materialized during the evening, 
but did not speak ; one was a negro boy, apparently 
about twelve years of age ; he looked out several times, 
and laughed ; judging from the noise and waving of the 
curtains, he must have had a good time dancing behind 
them. On examining the cabinet, I could discover noth- 
ing but the bare walls, floor and curtain. The conditions 
and surroundings were all right for materialization. 

Two or three nights previous, Mrs. Cooper, by re- 
quest, gave a seance in the parlor of the hotel for the 
Tennessee Bar Association, which was holding a two 
days' session on the mountain. There were present a 
large number of lawyers of the state ; but judging from 
their physiognomy, not the most prominent by a long 
ways, or the state of Tennessee is far behind the others. 
Many kept up a continual snickering and derogatory re- 
marks, that no gentleman would be guilty of in the pres- 
ence of ladies. Few, if any complied with the condi- 
tions known by spiritualists to be essentially necessary 
for good manifestations When asked to sing, they 
sang, but bongs that may have been good enough for a 
lager-beer-saloon, but not for a spiritual seance. So far 
as convincing one person, it was a decided failure, and 
all for want of proper surroundings; Mrs. Cooper her- 
self, being apparently in as good condition of mind and 
body at first as at our successful seance already des- 
cribed. 

The day I left Chattanooga, I saw in one of the dailies 



4 1 

of that city, an article copied from a Nashville, Tenn. r 
paper, about that seance, saying that the medium was 
detected in ringing the bells with her feet. Whereas, I 
sat near the Vice-President of the Association that night, 
and not to exceed four feet from her, and we both know 
that she did not move her feet once for that purpose ; 
and no gne at the time claimed to have detected her in- 
doing so. Several men remarked that they knew spirits 
could not ring a bell, and, therefore, she must have rung 
the bell with her feet. Mrs. C. immediately offered to 
give a committee of four of their number, a private 
seance, and allow two to hold her feet, Instead of ac- 
cepting, one of their number, or some other falsifier, 
writes a positive falsehood for a Nashville paper, which 
I would have replied to, but for want of time. 

From my own experience, I should not have expected 
any manifestations before such a crowd of men, nearly 
all of whom were not only very skeptical, but determin- 
ed to show that they were able to prevent any spirit from 
making its presence known. It was her first experience 
of anything as disorderly, and I have given the above il- 
lustrations, for the benefit of mediums who have just 
commenced sittings for manifestations. 

Do not sit, under any circumstances, unless you can 
have everything as you want it, instead of as your com- 
pany demand. If they insist on having things their 
way, or do not behave properly, do not sit for them. 

If possible, have as many ladies in the room as men. 
Have them sit alternately, with a lady at each end of the 
first row of seats, and at least ten feet away, unless known 
to be mediums. Never allow any discussion on any sub- 
ject. Never allow any conversation on any other subject. 
If any one disturbs the seance, insist that he leave the 
room or take a back seat at once, and not speak again. 



4 2 

during the evening. Let every company at all times 
understand that you give your time free, or for a stated 
compensation, and that for any interference by any one, 
you shall not be held accountable. Be kind, considerate 
and firm. 

If that which takes place is not conclusive enough to 
satisfy any one of their genuineness, do not abject to 
their saying so freely and honestly after the seance is over, 
and they have left the house ; not before. Genuine me- 
diums need not fear of having the truth spoken of their 
manifestations. If you are not a medium and wish to 
see or hear something of your spirit friends, make dili- 
gent enquiry of disinterested parties as to who is the best 
medium, and if you attend, comply with all the condi- 
tions required. I know that there are many who claim 
to be mediums, who are not. How am I to tell ? is an 
oft-repeated question. How are you to tell whether your 
grocer puts sand in his sugar, or corn meal in his ginger, 
^or second-hand soap grease in his tub, for A No. i 
butter? You are liable to get badly cheated every" time 
you buy a suit of clothes. Beware of the merchant 
always, who advertises Ci marked down one half." He 
has cheated former customers, or made more than half 
profits in the past; for if human, he is not going to sell 
goods now Ck marked down" at a loss. If men sell water, 
adulterated with a little milk, at six cents a quart, for the 
genuine article ; or ministers preach second-hand ser- 
mons as original, will not others make false claims as 
well? As long as men continue to deceive for gain in 
one direction, they are liable to in another. Exercise 
the same reasoning faculties when investigating spiritual 
phenomena as in the every-day affairs of life. There are 
hundreds of honest mediums now, and more being devel- 
oped every day. Do not put too much confidence in the 



43 

spirits. Try them as you do mortals. " Hallo, you 
here !" said a man to me in Kansas, " Where did I ever 
see you before ?" I asked. " Huntington Hall, Lowell, 
Mass., ten years ago, giving exhibitions of mesmerism." 
The first answer contained evidence that he knew me, 
and was not merely pretending. "Where are you from ?" 
asked a gentleman of a suspicious character. "From 
the city of Baltimore," was the answer. " How long 
did you live there?" " Born and brought up there," 
was the reply. u That is in — let me see — Maryland, is 
it not ?" asked the gentleman. " No sir, it is the cap- 
ital of Virginia." An incredulous smile lighted up the 
face of the questioner, who knew that Baltimore was not 
in Virginia, and that the man was a fraud. Little things 
are greater tests of spirit or mortal identity than many 
think. 

I was called up to Mrs. Ross's cabinet once to find a 
nice looking lad materialized, who announced himself 
as the son of my wife's sister, and while talking with 
him, the form of a young lady moved up to his side and 
said that she was his sister. I asked " is your mother 
here ?" The curtain parted wider, and my wife's sister 
stood before me, as natural as I ever saw her, and im- 
mediately requested that I send for " Margaret " If 
Mrs. Ross keeps people to personate spirits, she must 
have several hundred, and be able to present the right 
ones at the proper time, to have them resemble friends 
of those who attend her seances. My wife's name is 
Margaret, and I do not think Mrs. Ross knew that, or 
that my wife had a sister so near like her, that one has 
often been mistaken for the other ; and as she had been 
** dead" only about one year, I could not be mistaken 
in her identity. Her daughter had materialized at other 
seances, and I knew her at sight ; and the lad with whom 



44 

I was not as familiar, bore a striking resemblance to his 
father. 

I could no more be mistaken in these materialized 
spirits, than with living people who have not changed 
worlds I sent for my wife, she came to Providence, at- 
tended Mrs. Ross's seances with me, and her sister materi- 
alized and talked of various things that were probably un- 
known to all save those two and myself; and I have had 
as good tests with many other mediums. Shall I believe 
my own senses, or take statements made by unknown 
men, at an unknown time, as my only hope of a hereaf- 
ter ? The Rev. Mr. Murray, of Boston, while speaking 
of the Old Testament, said : fcC We are reading the his- 
tory of a very ignorant and superstitious people. We 
are reading only the fragments of old time history — wind 
blown fragments, as it were ; fragments that have been 
found by seeking eyes and fingers here and there ; frag- 
ments, the writing on which, in many cases, was half ob- 
literated, — whose meaning had to be guessed, and whose 
sentences were transcribed by the blundering fingers of 
men." 

During the sermon delivered by the Rev. Minot J. 
Savage, of the church of the Unity, Boston, Mass., on 
last Easter morning, (1884,) he said : t% If the orthodox 
claim be true, and Christ was God, His rising from the 
tomb, after lying in it only two nights, would hardly be 
good evidence that we shall rise from our graves after 
having gone back to dust for thousands of years. A 
wholly exceptional case like this is hardly good ground 
on which to base a common hope for our common race. 
But once more, if he was a man like ourselves, and if we 
can find reasons to think he really did appear to his 
friends after his death, then we may reasonably hope. 
But if Jesus actually reappeared, it is a fact of a very 



45 

strange and unusual kind. On such testimony as the 
New Testament furnishes us for so stupendous a claim 
as the reappearance of Jesus, no modern court would 
convict a criminal of petit larceny. A thousand times 
more evidence in favor of spirit return in the modern 
world is offered us by the despised and outcast body of 
spiritualists. And yet, thousands believe in an alleged 
fact 1 85 1 years old, while rejecting a good deal better 
testimony for similar alleged facts on the part of their 
next door neighbor." 

The impression that man goes back to " dust/' and is 
to remain so for thousands of years, as might be infered 
from the sermon of Mr. Savage, is not in harmony with 
known laws, concerning a dead body. Neither are wean 
outcast body of spiritualists, " save in the mind of" Pious 
Christains," for whom, to hear some of them talk, it 
would seem that u Hell is too good." Nor does the body 
go u back to dust for thousands of years, " generally. It 
may be preserved by being embalmed, or put beyond the 
reach of the atmosphere ; but the vast majority of human 
bodies decompose, and become parts of living men and 
women. And as there is only a comparatively very 
small amount of matter in the earth, or atmosphere suit- 
able for becoming human bodies, the question as to 
what shall be done with dead people, is now, or soon will 
be, one of the most vital for the consideration of the liv- 
ing. The question has arisen in my own mind, if a de- 
ficiency of the proper material for the growing bodies 
of children, is not one great cause of cholera and other 
epidemics? If so, cremation will prove a blessing, if it 
takes the place of burial. Nature must have a sufficient 
quantity of the proper material to carry on her work ; 
and is it not the best policy to put it where, by a natural 
process it may be available. If each human being re- 



4 6 

mains as u dust" for thousands of years without enter- 
ing into other combinations, there is a reasonable excuse 
for a belief in the resurrection of the dead body, but not 
otherwise. 

T. De Witt Talmage delivered a violent tirade at the 
Brooklyn, N. Y., Tabernacle, April 27, 1884, on " Spir- 
itualism and Imposture," which I have seen printed in 
full, in many newspapers, and which, to my mind, con- 
tains plain contradictions and untruths. I copy from the 
Kansas City Times of April 28, 1884. He commenced 
by saying : u We are surrounded on all sides by mystery. 
Before us, behind us ; to the' right of us, to the left of us, 
mystery. There is an unexplored world that science, I 
believe, will yet map out. Strange things that have not 
been accounted for ; sounds and appearances that con- 
found all acoustics and all investigation ; approximations 
to the spectral ; effects that seem to have no sufficient 
cause. The Avail between this world and the spiritual, I 
think, is very thin. That there is communication be- 
tween this world and another world is certain. Spirits 
depart from this to that, and the Bible says ministering 
spirits come from that to this. It may be that complete 
and constant, and unmistakeable lines of communication 
between the two w r orlds may yet be opened." 

If " communication between this world and another 
world is certain," then why make the foolish statement 
that u lines of communication between these two worlds 
may yet be opened?" After these contradictory utter- 
ances, he says, " To unlatch the door between the present 
state and the future state, all the ringers of superstition 
have been busy." I would like to ask if an inherent 
desire, on the part of Christian or Spiritualist, " to un- 
latch the door between the present state and the future 
state," is u superstition?" Men in all ages and countries, 



47 

so far as we know, have some form of worship. The 
theologian preaches long sermons from the text, u Search 
the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life." 
Is it not to unlatch the door, that they search the Scrip- 
tures? How does Talmage know that u spirits depart 
from this to that?" Has he ever seen them? If he has 
not, he knows nothing about it, for all he can know, must 
be through some of the five senses. After making a 
statement concerning that of which he apparently knows 
nothing, he adds, " and the Bible says, ministering spirits 
come from that to this." What evidence has Talmage 
that the man who wrote the Bible knew any more about 
the spirits than himself? None. What evidence have 
.we that that man was anymore reliable in his statements 
than Talmage ? None. Can Talmage tells us of one 
of the u strange things that cannot be accounted for" in 
Spiritualism ? for that is what he is talking about. 

Has he ever tried to find a solution to these cc strange 
things." If not, how is he to know whether they can 
be accounted for or not? If he has tried, and failed, is he 
so egotistic as to think that what Talmage does'nt know, 
no one else can learn ? Again, how does he know that 
there have been ki sounds and appearances that confound 
all acoustics and all investigation?" Is he capable of 
solving all sounds or appearances ? If he is, will he ex- 
plain how Jonah could live three days in the belly of a 
whale, under water, with nothing to eat, or air to breathe, 
and yet be able to speak long sentences? " Then Jonah 
prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. And 
said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, 
and He heard me ; out of the belly of hell cried I, and 
thou heardest my voice. * * *. Then I said, I am cast 
out of thy sight ; yet I will look again towards thy holy 
temple. ***. Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord 



4§ 

spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the 
dry land." As Talmage evidently believes this storv, is 
it to be wondered at that he should commence a sermon 
on " Spiritualism and Imposture," by saying " We are 
surrounded on all sides by mystery," as that is one of 
the greatest mysteries of the ages ; and if not true, the 
greatest " imposture" also. 

I would like to see Talmage stripped of his theologi- 
cal cloak for twenty minutes, and hear him go for that 
book of Jonah! Continuing his sermon, he said, "In 
all ages there have been necromancers — those who consult 
with the spirits of the departed." Will he tell us of one 
necromancer " who consults with the spirits of the de- 
parted," in this age, or indeed, in any age? If he can, he 
wall have established the great fact that mortals can 
** consult with the spirits of the departed." Continuing 
the last quotation he says : " Dreamers, people who in 
their sleeping moments, can see the future world, and 
hold consultation with spirits." Who does he mean by 
that? Is it of Joseph who dreamed he heard an angel 
talk ? or people of modern times ? His statement is a pos- 
itive one, that dreamers, have seen, and can see the future 
w r orld, and hold consultation with spirits. How does he 
know ? Is he telling the truth ? Can he give us any evi- 
dence that he is not talking just to hear his own chin 
music? He says "Another remark: spiritualism is 
doom, and death to its desciples. It ruins the body : 
— look in upon an audience of spiritualists, cadaverious, 
weak, nervous, exhausted ; hands clammy and cold ; 
spiritualism destroys the physical health." Is spir- 
itualism doom and death to its disciples ? If so, why 
has not the fact become apparent? Is Christianity in- 
creasing a hundreth part as rapidy ? Would not he have 
come nearer the truth if he had said, it is death to bigotry 



49 

and superstition ? Among many other statements, he said 
that u Many years ago the steamer Atlantic started trom 
Europe for the United States," and was delayed a u whole 
month" by machinery breaking ; those who had friends 
aboard, went to mediums, who said that the vessel was 
lost, and "Women went raving mad, and were carried 
away to the lunatic asylum." Is that true? Do "wo- 
men" usually go u raving mad" when they hear of the 
death of absent friends on sea or land ? That statement 
is too thin, for Spiritualists to swallow, but it may do for 
those who believe that God and Satan had a friendly chat 
together about Job ; and how God encouraged the devil 
to kill all of Job's sons and daughters, just to convince 
his Satanic majesty that He had one man too good for 
the devil. After another long outburst of abuse, he says, 
" Some of the performances of spiritual mediums are not 
to be ascribed to fraud, but to some occult law, that after 
awhile may be demonstrated." If they cannot u be ascribed 
to fraud," how does he know they are to " some occult 
law" ? What evidence has he that those u performances" 
that are not u fraud," may- not be the work of human 
spirits^ — or the devil? 

I have attended the social gatherings of Spiritualists in 
more than twenty States of the Union ; and though for 
several years a member of the Methodist church, I have 
never known more sociable or happy people anywhere 
than the Spiritualists. And yet this learned divine ( ?) , 
this minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, says, " Spiritual- 
ism smites first of all and mightily against the nervous 
system, and so makes life miserable." Let the world 
judge whether there is a word of truth in that utterance. 

I will not pollute my pencil by quoting the worst 
phrases of this " Christian" sermon. I will confine 
myself to one or two more sentences: "Now, I be- 



5° 

lieve, under God, that this sermon will save many from 
disease, insanity and perdition." 

Now, I believe, under God, that it has and will add, at 
least, twenty-five per cent, to the growth of Spiritualism 
in America. Judging from what I saw and heard, 
nothing ever so aroused the Spiritualists of the west, 
where I was at the time, as this sermon. It naturally 
called forth comments, and sneers, from those who had 
never investigated spiritual phenomena, and gave be- 
lievers a grand opportunity to talk to their neighbors on 
the subject. It was the principal cause of my issuing this 
book; and which " under God" with the help of the 
Spiritualists, I hope to scatter broadcast over the land ; 
and if any are pleased with what I have written, I trust 
they will help me by ordering copies for distribution 
among their friends and neighbors. I shall not soon 
forget the first time I ever saw Mr. Talmage. It was 
during an engagement of five weeks, at the Brooklyn, N. 
Y., Athseneum, where I gave experimental lectures on 
mesmerism, five weeks in succession during the winter 
of 1879-80. I attended the morning service in the 
tabernacle and returned to the Clinton hotel, and was at 
dinner, as the wife of one of the head clerks in the New 
York post office, asked me how I liked Mr. Talmage, and 
saying that she sat directly back of me during the services ; 
and that she thought his prayer was perfectly splendid. 
I said to her that I had heard men, while angry and 
terribly excited, utter horrid oaths on the street ; and while 
under the influence of liquor, mingle their Maker's name 
with the most obscene language ; but I could say truth- 
fully that I had never been so shocked at blasphemous 
utterances anywhere, or at any time, as while listening 
to Talmage's prayer that forenoon. The lady looked as- 
tonished, and asked, " Why ?" I replied, that to see a 



5i 

man come out with a bold, defiant tread to the front of 
the rostrum ; fold up his arms ; turn his face up towards 
heaven, and in a commanding irreverant tone of voice, 
talk to God Almighty, as though He were an ignorant 
hireling, telling him all about some difficulty in the 
state of Maine among the politicians, precisely as though 
God had never heard of it ; and then, what to do about 
restoring peace and harmony in the pine tree state ; and 
also of other states and countries, and people as well, was 
to me greater blasphemy than any swearing I had ever 
heard anywhere. Not one petition offered to our heavenly 
Father that tended to lift the aching, hungry soul, one 
step nearer to God and the angel world ; or to fit us for 
that home, where the many mansions are ; and I asked if 
my conclusions were not correct. After a few moments' 
thought, she said, " yes, I think so now, but I had never 
looked at it in that light before." 

In concluding my remarks about Talmage's sermon, I 
will say, that if any desire to compare the lives of Spirit- 
ualists with the lives of ministers of the gospel, they can 
get a book of Col. Billings, Waverly, Iowa, on " The 
Crimes of Preachers," giving names and residences of 
several hundred, and their misdeeds, that will put to 
blush all that Talmage can say of Spiritualism. If that is 
not sufficient, you can procure a Bible and read of David, 
who, while he had something like a thousand wives and 
concubines, committed a second-hand murder, to get the 
wife of Uriah, who had only one, and who, the Bible 
that Talmage reveres, says was a man after God's own 
heart. I honestly think that the Brooklyn preacher is a 
hundred times more deluded than any Spiritualist in this 
country. 

In conclusion, I will say that I know I have seen many 
of my own relatives materialized at the spiritual seances 



5 2 

of not only Mrs. Ross, but at those held by Mrs. Bliss 
and Mrs. Pickering, and Mrs. Fay in Boston ; and at 
Mrs. Allen's seances in Providence, R. I., and by other 
mediums in other places, many times. The great ques- 
tion with many is, can a spirit materialize ? and if so, 
how is it possible, and yet be in harmony with known 
laws? We know, as before stated, that there is a force or 
power that draws invisible matter to the growing plants, 
rendering them visible to sense of sight. Not all the oak 
was in the acorn, but a germ of life was there, that at- 
tracted to itself all that has made the tree. A spirit is 
material, as truly as- is that invisible matter ; and to be- 
come visible co us, the spirit does not require a hun- 
dredth part as much of the gross material, of which the 
mortal body is composed, as at first thought, might seem 
necessary. As an illustration : Fill a large jar, made of 
thin, transparent glass, with pure water ; set it on the 
window sill, and while standing back of it, look out the 
window ; and unless you knew that the water was there, 
you w^ould not notice it. Add an ounce of blueing, let 
the water freeze, and the previously invisible matter be- 
comes as tangible as Parian marble. The spirit need 
only to attract to its outer surface, an ounce of the gross 
matter of which mortal bodies are composed, to become 
tangible to sense of sight and feeling. 

I have had unmistakable evidence that our spirit 
friends are with us — not dead, though yet subject to the 
laws of nature, and able, with proper magnetism, and 
proper conditions, to attract to their spirit forms a suffi- 
cient quantity of matter to exultingly exclaim, "Oh, 
friends of earth, I am not dead, nor annihilated ; I live, 
free from the pains and cares of the mortal body, waiting 
to welcome you to my spirit home, when your journey 
on earth shall end." 




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FOR MESMERIZING PEOPLE, 

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"ROW TO MESMERIZE, ' ' 

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PROFESSOR J. W. CADWELL, 
4-01 Center Street, Meriden, Conn., If. S. .V. 



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